Sir Bernard de Gomme
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Sir Bernard de Gomme (1620–1685) was a military engineer.
[edit] Early life
In his youth he served in the campaigns of Frederick Henry, prince of Orange. He afterwards accompanied Prince Rupert to England, and was knighted by Charles I. He served with conspicuous ability in the royalist army as engineer and quartermaster-general from June 1642 to May 1646 [1]. His plan of the fortifications and castle of Liverpool, dated 1644, is preserved in the British Museum, Sloane MS. 5027, A. art. 63. On 15 June 1649 Gomme received a commission from Charles II, then at Breda, to be quartermaster-general of all forces to be raised in England and Wales [2].
[edit] Restoration
In March 1661 he was made engineer-in-chief of all the king's castles and fortifications in England and Wales. Among his first tasks were the repairs of Dover pier, the erection of fortifications at Dunkirk, and the surveying of Tilbury Fort. In August 1665 instructions were given for making the fortifications at Portsmouth according to the plans prepared by Gomme. On 14 Nov. of the same year the king directed him to give his assistance to commissioners for making the Cam navigable, and establishing a communication with the Thames. Three days later he received a commission to build a new citadel on the Hoe of Plymouth. In March 1667 he accompanied the Duke of York to Harwich, which it was proposed to entrench completely all round. On returning to London he was summoned to give advice for fortifying the Medway and Portsmouth, as well as Harwich [3]. In 1673 and 1675 he was making surveys about Dublin. A reference to Gomme's ‘design of building a fort-royal on the strand near Ringsend,’ in the neighbourhood of Dublin, occurs in the report of the elder Sir Jonas Moore, surveyor-general of ordnance, drawn up in 1675 [4]. In July 1682, Gomme was appointed surveyor-general of ordnance [5]. He died on 23 Nov. 1685, and was buried on the 30th of that month in the chapel of the Tower of London [6]. He left liberal legacies to the Dutch Church in London and to Christ's Hospital. He married, first, Katherine van Deniza, widow of Adrian (?) Beverland, by whom he had a daughter, Anna, married to John Riches. Their daughter was Catherine Bovey. Gomme married secondly, by license dated 15 Oct. 1667, Catherine Lucas of Bevis Marks, a widow of fifty who died a few weeks before him, and was buried in the Tower chapel 19 Oct. 1685.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1660–1, p. 448
- ^ Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1649–50, p. 188
- ^ PEPYS, Diary, ed. 1854, iii. 90
- ^ ‘Letters written by Arthur Capel, Earl of Essex, Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland,’ &c., 4to, London, 1770 (p. 167)
- ^ CHAMBERLAYNE, Angliæ Notitia, ed. 1684, pt. ii. p. 219
- ^ Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. ix. 252
